December 31, 2014

Check out these gorgeous photos of a dog, taken by his human.

in places where they've traveled together.

my favorite:





http://www.earthporm.com/wild-adventures-man-dog-majestic-nature-photos/

December 31, 2014

New Year's Eve day sunrise in Chapel Hill

post photo application of photobucket's Indiglow effect and splatter frame


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and the unaltered photo


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December 27, 2014

The Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch

My husband wanted to go see this last night.

Fascinating story. We had seen an Enigma machine on display in London at Churchill's War Rooms
last May when we were there.

Some info: http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_sheets_enigma.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine

I did not know anything about Alan Turing, although my husband had read a book about him.



Benedict Cumberbatch's performance is superb. Really well done.


Alan Turing:
Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.



Apparently, the relationship with Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley) is overdramatized, although
they did have a short engagement.


For some of the controversy surrounding the depiction of Turing's relationship with Joan Clarke:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2346828/Film-WW2-codebreaker-Alan-Turing-attacked-biographer-exaggerating-love-affair-woman-gay-says-Keira-Knightley-glamorous.html


And Keira Knightley's view about it: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/26/keira-knightley-imitation-game_n_6221196.html


Anyone else see it?

December 26, 2014

For the 14th year in a row, UNC-Chapel Hill has been ranked Kiplinger's #1 best public college value

http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-public-colleges/index.php

http://uncnews.unc.edu/facts-about-carolina/facts-figures/


We live in Chapel Hill. Both our sons graduated from Chapel Hill public schools, but took
different directions.

Our youngest son graduated (in 4 years) from UNC-Chapel Hill with a double major. He had
a scholarship worth $20K over 4 years, which just about covered tuition. He managed
to snag a Fulbright Scholarship last year--to spend 10 months in Berlin--studying German theater (he was a German major)
and was admitted last spring to Yale School of Drama for an MFA Class of 2017 (he's first year in that)
and has a sizable scholarship covering almost all his tuition there. Fortunately, we have been
able to cover his living expenses (he also has work study at Yale) and he SHOULD be able to
complete 7 years of undergrad/grad study with NO loans.

He happens to be a really smart kid. We are hoping the Yale credentials--and contacts-- will get him in the door
when it comes time to working in the world of theater.

Our oldest--now at 28-- decided he wanted nothing to do with college after high school--has always known he wanted to work in computers--and he's managed to do very well for himself by teaching himself. His current and previous jobs he was recruited to by
people he knew. We helped him buy a townhouse when he was 25, buying down the mortgage to a level for which he could qualify, using the money we had set aside for his college for his down payment. He has always been a really level headed, responsible kid.

So our kids are night and day different in how they've approached post high school experience/education/career prep.

December 22, 2014

We have hoot owls here in Chapel Hill.

The first summer we were in the house we rebuilt after the fire, we had one that routinely
roosted during the day in a tree down the hill on our lot.

See? Since then we've heard them, but I've never gotten any more shots of them.
It's really fun when one hoots and another answers!

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December 16, 2014

Southern sunrise

Three brief views from the back deck this morning here in Chapel Hill

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December 14, 2014

Yeah, but what about the other 3 that are under repair?

Entirely different subs--maybe from the Trident era?--clearly not museums.

And one of their nuclear subs was parked at Jacksonville, Fl during Sandy. Nice of us to accommodate
them riding out the storm since they were off the coast listening in...so it seems.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2228487/Russian-attack-sub-discovered-just-200-miles-East-Coast-given-safe-harbor-Hurricane-Sandy.html

December 14, 2014

I shot these photos of (nuclear?) subs docked in St. Petersburg when we were there in May

on a Baltic cruise. They were right out in the open for anyone to see--as we cruised by going in/out of the harbor--
and it really seemed like the Russians were flaunting it.

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